Memorial Day 2025
Yesterday, was a day to remember for the almost 40 members of our Corvette Club of Marion County who participated in this year’s Memorial Cruise. We had over 30 cars join us on this beautiful, albeit a very hot, Saturday in May to honor the real reason we celebrate Memorial Day. We began at the Marion County Veteran’s Memorial Park in Ocala, touring the grounds, seeing the new features they have added, and listening to Ron Oppliger, the park curator, tell about this weekends Memorial Day event and future plans for the park. It is a wonderful memorial to all veterans, and a solemn place to visit to remember the men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we all enjoy. Our President Mike Stone laid a wreath to show the respect we all have for the fallen, and those who have still not returned.
From there we traveled in a caravan, well sort of, as the traffic was very heavy and we got separated a lot, to visit the Eisenhower Recreation Center in the Villages. If you have not seen this beautiful center totally dedicated to the military and veterans of all branches of service, you need to schedule a visit. It is a museum of honor to all who served, as everywhere you look inside there are pictures and memorabilia dating back to WWII recognizing how our freedom has been earned through all of the battles we have fought. Our members spent about an hour there viewing the many rooms filled with pictures looking for those from whatever branch of service we joined. You can’t come away from there without a sense of feeling and pride for everyone the center was designed to honor. The pictures you will see below do not do it justice as they represent only a small portion of what is there to see.
Finally, it would not be a Corvette Cruise unless there was a meal together at the end of it for our members to enjoy time together and reminisce about what we had just all experienced on the cruise. We visited the Back Porch Mulberry in The Villages where we were welcomed and seated together in a space they had reserved for our club. The service was wonderful as was the time we all had together enjoying a meal with our Corvette Club extended family. Thankfully everyone returned home safe from the cruise, and we are grateful so many members joined us for this important event. We all will look forward to doing it again next year. A big CCMC “Thank You” to the entire staff at the Back Porch Restaurant and to the Managers Scott and Shay for organizing our visit there. Thanks also to Tina Farabee and Roger Peterson for the pictures.. Enjoy them !
Yesterday, was a day to remember for the almost 40 members of our Corvette Club of Marion County who participated in this year’s Memorial Cruise. We had over 30 cars join us on this beautiful, albeit a very hot, Saturday in May to honor the real reason we celebrate Memorial Day. We began at the Marion County Veteran’s Memorial Park in Ocala, touring the grounds, seeing the new features they have added, and listening to Ron Oppliger, the park curator, tell about this weekends Memorial Day event and future plans for the park. It is a wonderful memorial to all veterans, and a solemn place to visit to remember the men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we all enjoy. Our President Mike Stone laid a wreath to show the respect we all have for the fallen, and those who have still not returned.
From there we traveled in a caravan, well sort of, as the traffic was very heavy and we got separated a lot, to visit the Eisenhower Recreation Center in the Villages. If you have not seen this beautiful center totally dedicated to the military and veterans of all branches of service, you need to schedule a visit. It is a museum of honor to all who served, as everywhere you look inside there are pictures and memorabilia dating back to WWII recognizing how our freedom has been earned through all of the battles we have fought. Our members spent about an hour there viewing the many rooms filled with pictures looking for those from whatever branch of service we joined. You can’t come away from there without a sense of feeling and pride for everyone the center was designed to honor. The pictures you will see below do not do it justice as they represent only a small portion of what is there to see.
Finally, it would not be a Corvette Cruise unless there was a meal together at the end of it for our members to enjoy time together and reminisce about what we had just all experienced on the cruise. We visited the Back Porch Mulberry in The Villages where we were welcomed and seated together in a space they had reserved for our club. The service was wonderful as was the time we all had together enjoying a meal with our Corvette Club extended family. Thankfully everyone returned home safe from the cruise, and we are grateful so many members joined us for this important event. We all will look forward to doing it again next year. A big CCMC “Thank You” to the entire staff at the Back Porch Restaurant and to the Managers Scott and Shay for organizing our visit there. Thanks also to Tina Farabee and Roger Peterson for the pictures.. Enjoy them !